Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Following the lead of several other bloggers, I bought a jar of Vallejo Black Lava texture paint to try for basing (and eventually mud and corrosion effects, if I get the gumption.)

First off, I was impressed by the size of the container for $10 (from Sprue Brothers.) Maybe I have Citadel price desenitization, but I was expecting about 1/4 of what I got. This looks like enough to base an army. The jar itself has an inner plug that should keep the gunk from drying out for a good long time. So far so good.

I tried three tests to start. The first, the assault marine, was a figure glued to a base. I painted the black lava around the feet onto the base. It was surprisingly easy to keep it off the feet of the mini... much more so than using glue and sand. The second test was to paint a round slotta base, clumping it on thick enough to cover the slot, and then placing the marine legs into the black lava. I wanted to see if the black lava would sink into the slot over time, and if it has any adhesive qualities. Lastly, I used a little thinned out black lava to paint on some of the cork texture on Skrolk's base. I wanted to see how fine a texture could be achieved (on top, the flat area of the cork) and if the texture on the broken side of the cork could be obscured.